If you understand addiction or CTE, it makes it easier to understand the behavior and be sympathetic to his situation.
When people are saying he's an opiate addict, they aren't saying he just decided to mainline heroin for ***** and giggles. He we all know how many injuries he played through at ISU, and it's very likely that he was prescribed some potent pain medication - most likely opiate based, as marijuana is still the devil - to get through it. He kept fighting this in the NFL. Almost anyone who spent that much time with a prescription to opioid based pain killers and that amount of physical pain would develop a dependence.
When the football thing dries up, he's still stuck with a physical addiction. Not because he's a bad person who made bad choices, but because he followed a medically prescribed regimen while pursuing his dream. But he's just as addicted as anyone else.
If you know anything about physical dependency, you know how hard it is to break this. His pattern of theft, especially items that are easily liquidated, backs up the numerous "insider" posts that claim this is a pain pill issue. Addicts justify a lot to keep things going.
Hopefully someone can help Jake. This story isn't unique, and it's heart breaking every time it happens.